Moterboard Replacement (6400/e1505) Thermal Compound/Pad Question

Hi all, Dell has sent me a new motherboard since my old motherboard was emitting a high pitch whining sound under load. I am in the middle of disassembling the laptop and now I have gotten to the processor part and heat sync. The Processor Thermal-Cooling Assembly is held down by 4 screws. When you flip it over there is dried/hard thermal compound for where the processor is and some soft (assuming thermal pad) over the other section.

Photo below:


Question is can i take off the pad and clean the harden thermal compound and then just use Artic Silvers "Ceremique"(ceramique has no adhesiveness to it btw)?? Dell didn't send me thermal compound or a thermal pad.

Also I noticed that there is pretty nice space between the contact points where the thermal pad was located which leads me to think I will need a pad in that section cause the ceramique compound might not fill all that empty space very well.

 

Arctic Silver should be fine to replace the dried thermal compound.
I'm not sure about the pad. Is that actually meant to cool something or is it just for cushioning or to keep metal parts apart?

 

one is for the cpu the other is graphics card.

sometimes pads are needed...but you can try with the paste and see when you screw it down if it makes solid contact. you will know by the look of the paste.

 

Thanks for the input guys!

I have ceramique compound (made by Arctic company) which is a bit better from all my research (I used in on my tower AMD cpu)

nizzy, not sure if that other chip is the onboard graphics or not I have put a picture below. I know right next to it I have my graphics card slot (ATIx1400). But maybe that is the built in graphics chip for people who didn't get a video card??

Shot with Heatsink Off and diagram:


Shot with Heatsink On:

 

Other chip is the MCH....

 

Thanks for the reply...The memory control hub is the other chip found that out late last night. It was using the thermal pad.

 

bump!

Anyone have any input on whether or not ceramique can be substituted for the thermal pad over the MCH (Memory Control Hub)?

 

Moterboard I wonder what it is

 

Well I went out and picked some Arctic 5 on Arctics recommendation to use that instead of ceramique because its an open processor and not a heat sink.

I then applied arctic 5 to both the cpu and the MCH (memory control hub) and then tightened the screws. Then I took off the screws and flipped the heat sink and there was absolutely NO contact between the MCH and the Arctic 5.

My conclusion you NEED a thermal pad in order for the MCH to make contact with the heat sink. I will follow up once Dell comes and fixes the issue.

 

yeah i was afraid that would happen. dell should be able to send you a new pad...well actually you will probably get a whole new heatsink.

 

PS anyone have any thoughts on the whether to just stick with Dells thermal grease pad for the cpu or just go with the Arctic 5?